Mona Van Der Watt - Physical Medium

REPORT OF EVIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION THROUGH MONA VAN DER WATT

It
seems to be the fashion today to denigrate physical mediumship and its
value to Spiritualism. Many of those who hold temporary positions of
authority within what is loosely called 'The Movement' have never had
what I call convincing evidence of the continuity of life. In fact,
when questioned by the media they are extremely unconvincing and often
fail to put the case across. They invariably disappear from prominence
as quickly as they rose.

Indeed,
I recall how one speaker/medium at Stansted Hall openly boasted that
she had never received evidence of survival: she just 'knew'! How can
we ever hope to convince others when we lack conviction ourselves? With
such an attitude is it any wonder that we fail to attract, as we did in
the past, people of intelligent and enquiring minds. After 35 years
of investigation - with nine physical mediums and many first class
mental mediums - it is my contention that, if you are really sincere in
your quest and are prepared to keep an open mind, you will always
receive the evidence you need. I will go even further. You will never
lose contact with those you really love.

In
this article I want to discuss the first two physical mediums who made
a tremendous impact on my life, namely Mona van der Watt and Alec
Harris, who will be featured next month. Mona, a Scotswoman, had
emigrated to South Africa in 1954 with her husband, Eben, a South
African psychologist and was living in Cape Town when I first met her. When
I was 16 I started to investigate the various religions which
advertised in the local paper on a Saturday. Christianity had the most
offshoots so it took quite a long time to work my way through them. The
last one I came to was the Spiritualist Church where a demonstration of
clairaudience was advertised. I decided to attend. So it was that on
December 2, 1959, I received my first contact with the spirit world.
As I look back now I realise that date had the same impact on me as the
March 31, 1848 had on the Fox sisters. Mona had a gift which I believe
was unique in modern times. While demonstrating or in private sittings
you could actually hear the spirit voices talking to her. Although
Mona's gifts unfolded without any obvious development it was eight
years before the voices manifested.

Mona
told me that at one stage she was given a choice by her guides: she
could sit in complete darkness and develop direct voice, which would be
limited to a small number of people or reach a larger audience, but the
voice would be weaker. She chose the latter. On one occasion she was
tested by six doctors. As Psychic News
reported at the time: 'They examined the medium with a stethoscope.
Wherever they put it, they heard the voice speaking. Yet it was
impossible for them to trace the source.' The guide who was entrancing
her said that he would stop her pulses one by one and asked the doctors
to verify it. When he finally stopped the last pulse in her temple the
doctors agreed that by their standards she would be classed as dead.
Her guide then said he would put 'power' back into one finger which he
did - and then placed the medium's finger on the forehead of one of the
doctors who immediately collapsed on the floor as though struck by
lightning. One by one the guide restored the pulses and Mona returned
to normal.

The
reporter told readers that a high-pitched voice emanated from Mona's
left shoulder. At times the voice would travel across the audience and
speak to people from just above their heads, but that was exceptional.
Usually the voice addressed the guide, who then repeated the
communication through the entranced medium. The controlled Mona 'walked
around the hall without faltering. Her eyes were shut, but the guide
knew who was before him.' Occasionally when demonstrating before an
international audience, such as at the International Spiritualist
Federation Conferences, she would wear a throat microphone so that all
could hear the spirit voice which relayed communications to her. During
the demonstration, 'everyone had a good opportunity of hearing the
voice mediumship.' For a number of years I spent six days out of seven
attending the various activities of the church and so had an excellent
opportunity of observing her mediumship at very close quarters.
Thursday nights were usually reserved for research and experiments.Iremember
one occasion when I obtained permission to place a microphone as close
to her left shoulder as possible. The spirit voices which manifested
sounded like a record being played at very fast speed. The guide then
relayed what was being said. To my astonishment, when playing the tape
back, I clearly heard my grandmother's voice as well as a guide who had
frequently been described to me. Both relayed very evidential messages.
An interesting point here is that this same guide has given evidence of
his identity in private sittings with Gordon Higginson and Gerard Smith.

What
I particularly noticed was that though the gist of the communication
was relayed by the guide it was not necessarily word for word as said
by the spirit contact. Her guide often used African words which when
roughly translated meant 'I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that' or 'Give
it to me again' which illustrates the difficulty communicators have of
getting an accurate message across. I'm often amused when I hear
alleged mediums saying with absolute confidence 'they are telling me
this or telling me that' when I know how difficult it is to get one
sentence over with any degree of accuracy. At another time a spirit who
claimed to be Nobel Prizewinner, Wilhelm Rontgen, the inventor of
X-Rays, gave a talk on the healing rays used by spirit doctors and
guides and, as evidence of his presence, said he would leave a mark on
the medium which would disappear within twenty minutes. When Mona
came out of trance, clearly visible on her hand was the raised shape of
an X which gradually subsided and disappeared. Mona's guides and
helpers repeatedly demonstrated their ability to produce the spirit
voice even when she was more than 1000 miles away. In transit to the
1960 and 1963 International Spiritualist Federation's congresses,
Mona's guide made a promise. While the medium was on the ship they
would link with us in Cape Town during the Sunday service and try to
make the spirit voice audible.

On
both occasions it was clearly heard by the whole congregation at some
point during the demonstration of clairvoyance. Week after week the
evidence was so breathtaking it seemed almost too good to be true, yet
it was. No super-ESP hypothesis could explain away her mediumship. It
was with supreme confidence that I would bring sceptics to her meetings
and watch with amusement the look on their faces as they heard the
spirit voices and the evidence of survival. Today I would be
hard-pushed to find a medium of comparable qualityMany
people associated with South Africa's political and religious
activities came for sittings. One of Mona's regular sitters was
Professor T.J. Haarhoff, a Spiritualist, medium, healer and classical
scholar whom I met at a healing conference in the early 60's. Haarhoff,
a professor of classics at Witwatersrand University, told me that at
sittings with Mona, not only did he receive information on ancient, now
extinct, languages but much of the evidence confirmed what he obtained
from materialisation medium Alec Harris, then living in Johannesburg.On
one occasion, Haarhoff took a man to Mona requesting a sitting, saying
he would introduce him later. As usual, Mona quickly became entranced
and almost immediately the spirit voices began. The guide said he
recognised the spirit communicator who was present. It was General J.C.
Smuts, a former Prime Minister and national hero. His opening words
were 'Hello, Fagan'. It transpired that the sitter was the former Chief
Justice of the Appeal Court. He volunteered that though Smuts and he
had been friends for very many years he had never called him by his
first name, always by his surname. The conversation that ensued cannot
be disclosed, but it is true to say that as a result of that sitting
Fagan entered politics and became a respected Senator in South Africa's
Upper House.

At
another time Mona and her husband were invited to address the students
at Cape Town University, at which General Smuts had once been
Vice-Chancellor. Knowing the attitude of some students, I was filled
with a little foreboding, particularly when I saw the poster
advertising the meeting which said, simply, 'Seance tonight.' It wasn't
the sort of meeting where you could get away with saying 'I see a pile
of books with you - are you studying?' or something equally ludicrous
as I've often heard in Spiritualist churches since. Dr van der Watt (or
Van as we called him) spoke on 'The mind in relation to Spiritualism'
which was well received and he then briefly explained how his wife's
mediumship worked. When she stood up to demonstrate my sense of
foreboding disappeared. As the spirit voice rang round the crowded hall
you could have heard a pin drop. The first contact was for a young man
whose brother had drowned. In an emotional reunion, evidence of his
survival poured forth...and I doubt if there was a dry eye in the house.

It
set the tone for the rest of the evening. Indeed many of the students
became regular visitors to her home. The demonstration finished with
the guide passing on a message to all the students from General Smuts.
He stated there was a group of former statesmen working from the Other
Side to help South Africa. Great changes were coming and the day would
come when she would regain her rightful place in the world. I can still
remember thinking how far-fetched it seemed, yet thirty years later...!
One of the most moving examples of how helpful her mediumship could be
was illustrated in the dramatic account, front-paged in Psychic News,
of how her guide located a missing boy. I knew the family concerned and
saw the emotional outcome so I cannot do better than quote the story as
published: "The parent - Psychic News
did not reveal her identity - had a heartbreaking story to tell. While
living in the then Belgian Congo she was legally separated from her
husband, but was given the custody of their four-year-old boy. "Soon
after the separation, her husband's brother stole the boy from the
front door of her house. With a false passport, the father took his son
to the USA."The wife was frantic because she could not get news of her
child. She even made the journey of thousands of miles to the USA.
where she searched without success for two years. Then she returned to
her family in Cape Town. "Every possible channel for help was tried.
In turn the mother consulted lawyers, clergymen and officials
responsible for the administration of the Congo. Alas, because of
internal troubles there, all official avenues of help were closed.
Moreover, none of her legal papers could be traced."At
this stage, almost at the end of her tether, she was brought to Mona.
Her guide gave the mother a message which indicated that the spirit
world was aware of her plight. He said, guardedly in public, that she
had lost what was very dear to her, but this would be found. On no
account was she to give up hope. The message stated that her problem
was linked with the USA. "After the service, the mother asked for a
private sitting with the medium. The guide discussed her troubles
fully, saying he knew that she was looking for a child. The parent
would be helped by the spirit world, he added. The guide forecast that
she would return to the USA. At the right time, guidance would be
provided. During the next 18 months, the mother visited the church at
regular intervals. Always similar encouragement was given. At one
private sitting, she asked the guide if she should leave South Africa
and go to Israel, to try and make a new life for herself without her
son. She explained that the strain was proving too much. "'No, you must
not go to Israel' said the guide. 'You will find your child. Just hold
on a little longer.' "At the next seance the guide volunteered, 'Now is
the time that you must write, as a mother, to Mrs Kennedy because she
is the first lady of the land, and ask for her help.' "He stated again
that she would return to the USA and find the boy. The mother complied
with the spirit request and wrote to Mrs Kennedy. Later she received a
letter from the American Consul in Cape Town asking her to call at his
office. This official explained that the letter she had sent to Mrs
Kennedy had been handed to the FBI. "The Consul disclosed that, at the
time she wrote to Mrs Kennedy, her husband had applied for a permit to
practise as a dentist in America. Once more she consulted the medium,
who advised her to go to the USA, which she did with the Consul's help.
Meantime, her husband was questioned by the American authorities."Realising
that something was amiss, he fled again with the boy. When his wife
arrived in America it was a bitter disappointment because she could
find no trace of either of them. Now strained to the uttermost, she
wrote to Mona for help. "The guide replied, counselling her to stay in
America. He insisted that she should continue with her quest and not
return to Cape Town. Once more he repeated his assurance she would find
her child."The mother then decided to employ a private
agency, but alas with no results. Once more she asked for spirit help.
The reply was that she should write to Mrs Kennedy again and this would
lead to co-operation with the FBI. At the time Mrs Kennedy was the
President's wife. "The medium heard nothing for a while. Then one day
her telephone rang. It was the woman's mother to say that she had
received a cable from her daughter. "She particularly wanted Mona to
know that after four years her little boy had been found. The FBI did
co-operate, as was foretold. They succeeded in tracing the husband in
Canada."Because all her legal papers had vanished in
the Congo troubles, the mother had to go through the ordeal of another
court case in Canada before obtaining full custody of her boyite
definite hump.

Each
guide had his or her own characteristic personality which was evident
before they spoke. Over the years I got to know at least thirteen
different guides, each specialising in a particular aspect of
mediumship. Only three or four would demonstrate in public, the others
manifesting in private or research groups. I have deliberately
refrained from giving examples of the evidence and help I received
which could probably fill a book but I can say that my father, a
renowned sceptic of things psychic, was instantly healed through her
mediumship. After the healing he demanded to know where the electric
heater was, which he said had been placed on his back. I explained that
she had placed only her . "When she saw Mona she said to this medium,
'You gave back my God, peace and hope - and then you gave me back my
little son'". Those of us in the church who knew of the case were
delighted when the lady brought her little boy to say 'Thank you' for
all the prayers that had been offered for his safe return. Another
prominent feature of Mona's mediumship was healing with the help of a
spirit doctor who said that on earth he had been a hunchback. It was
noticeable how, when entranced by him, her body would change showing a quhands on his back, a fact he never really came to terms with.

Mona's
healing successes were legion but the most spectacular case was a
12-year old boy in 1970. Blind from the age of four, his sight was
restored during a public demonstration at Durban's City Hall. When I
left South Africa in 1965, her guide promised to confirm his identity
through another medium. It was 1974 before the spirit promise was
fulfilled. Travelling in a car to Euston station with Gordon Higginson,
he suddenly turned to me and relayed a message from Mona's guide.
Again, in 1978, through the mediumship of Betty Wakeling, at a public
demonstration, he not only stated that he had been responsible for
bringing me into Spiritualism, but even gave the name of the medium.
Mona's philosophy was based on the biblical injunction to 'comfort the
mourner, bind the broken-hearted and heal the sick' all of which I have
tried to illustrate. Mona van der Watt passed to the Spirit World in
August, 1980 but within days made her return through Edinburgh medium,
Mary Duffy. At that time news of Mona's passing, in South Africa, had
not been made public. In a trance sitting Mrs Duffy's guide indicated
Mona's spirit presence without naming her, but said she was a medium
who came from the same city as mine does.' Mona's mediumistic career
began in Edinburgh.

A
little later that year Mona and her guide manifested at a Silver Birch
sitting which I was privileged to attend. She has since continued to
communicate through Betty Wakeling, Mary Duffy, Gordon Higginson and
regularly through Gerard Smith. In fact at a private sitting with
Gordon Higginson, both Maurice Barbanell and his guide, Silver Birch,
returned with some extremely good evidence.

Barbanell
also stated that he had met Mona on the Other Side, and had recently
had a sitting with her. He explained that very often when they wanted
to make contact with spirits further on they use a medium to make
contact between the spheres.Neither Gordon nor I could recall ever hearing of this before yet the very next day I picked up a book byJ.
J. Morse, which fell open on a page, which said that those who had been
mediums on this side were often used as mediums on the Other Side! The
latest communication has been through the mediumship of 'Lincoln' at a
recent Home Circle when 12 red field poppies were apported (the first
time flowers had been produced) through the narrow end of the trumpet,
and the guide said that Mona was hoping to speak in the direct voice
very soon.

Our thanks to The Two Worlds Publishing Company for their kind permission inallowing this article to be reproduced here, This article was originally published in theTwo Worlds Magazine, and then on